You know it’s a seriously slow news week when a vague threat from the producers of a film no one saw earns more than one line of traction. Movieline got a press release last night from reps for Fathom Studios, which produced the barely-seen animated film Delgo. The Na’vi aliens in Avatar have earned some unkind comparisons to Delgo‘s folk, and evidently all the jokes (they were jokes!) got the studio to thinking about their legal possibilities. Choice quotes after the break. Read More »

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

Please don’t take the commentary on the movies and TV shows too seriously, as they’re meant not to be reviews but rather previews that include the general thoughts and ramblings of a twice-committed DVD addict. The categories represent solely the author’s intentions towards the films at hand, and are in no way meant to be a reflection on what he thinks other people should rent or buy. So if he ends up putting a movie you like in the “Skip it” section without having seen it, please keep in mind that the time you could spend leaving a spiteful but ultimately futile comment could instead be used for more pleasant things in life. Like buying DVDs.

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS (SEASON 2)
It’s sad to think that this may be the last we see of Flight of the Conchords (in TV show form, anyway), but at least they went out strong, providing us with another wonderful season of offbeat, deadpan hilarity. …It isn’t perfect, however. Unlike the first season, where writers/creators/stars Jermaine Clement and Bret McKenzie already had the songs and needed to find a way to craft the episodes’ storylines around them, this time around, all of their songs were created exclusively for the new season. As such, the songs often tend to relate rather specifically to events taking place in the episodes, and a number of the tracks don’t hold up nearly as well on their own because of it. This is a minor quibble though, and isn’t nearly enough to detract from what’s otherwise a brilliant final outing from everyone’s favorite (and maybe only) New Zealand comedy duo.Blu-ray? No.Notable Extras: Deleted scenes, a documentary, and more.

Jonathan Crow at Yahoo Movies reports that this weekend, a small animated film named Delgo opened on 2,160 screens and made a paltry $511,920. According to Crow’s break down, that’s an average of about $237 per screen, or about two people in the theater per showing. By comparison, Doubt made $507,226 this weekend, but it only played on a miniscule 15 screens. This means that Delgo essentially breaks a record for the worst opening ever for a wide release film (Head on over to Box Office Mojo’s list of “Worst Openings at the Box Office for 2,000+ theaters” to see who else made the list).

According to the movie’s IMDB page, Delgo’s plot summary is as follows: “In an exotic divided land, Delgo, an adventurous dreamer but naive teenager, must rally his group of troubled youth and some unlikely friends to protect their world from conflict between the terrestrial Lockni people, who harness the mysteries of the land, and the winged Nohrin people, who rule the skies.” Sounds like a standard animated film plotline geared towards kids, but the reason the movie failed seems to be two-fold: Lackluster execution and virtually non-existent marketing.

Check out Crow’s post for a detailing of how the movie was conceived and created. It’s a tragic story about the hardships of independent filmmaking and the occasional futility of independent distribution.

Discuss: Did you see Delgo this weekend? Have you ever even heard of Delgo?